Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
– Henry Ward Beecher
– Henry Ward Beecher
If you don’t have any news today (and even if you do), feel free to provide a short book review or recommendation!
33 Comments
If you don’t have any news today (and even if you do), feel free to provide a short book review or recommendation!
Again: AP/Yahoo
Yeah, we just wish Harry Reid was capable of single-handedly thwarting anything…and more inclined to do so. At least he’s quick with a comeback.
With Harvard’s blessing: Washington Times
Just what we need, more voters helping politicians claim “the moral high ground”…
Then again, they don’t necessarily sound like Republican voters, do they?
Here is the link to Harvard Institute of Politics Report.
The selective quoting of this national survey of college students in the Moonie Times is somewhat misleading, and partially wrong, as is the statement that Harvard “blesses” anything other than the acquisition of the data and drawing some straightforward conclusions from the survey. There is no “wooing” of politicians in the report to take a particular method of attracting these voters, as the Moonie Times article states there is.
is an incorrect attribution, as ‘the survey’ does not include this ‘quote’.
In the report, The Director of the IOP, Jeanne Shaheen, is quoted as saying only that
imho, this is a far cry from ‘blessing’ a strategy, it is merely an observation that these students themselves have reported in the survey that religion is important to them in determining their politics.
The thrust of what the report itself says of Religious Centrist College Students is only that
Other information in the report shows that students are overwhelmingly in support of withdrawing some or all troops from Iraq and feel the country is on the wrong track.
Not so gloomy, I think.
Look who’s helping little Ricky Santorum with his campaigning…Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.
Shoot. My invite must have gotten lost in the mail. Damnit all.
More US generals turn on Rumsfeld
The girl whose heart was brought back to life
Wow. That is amazing.
Wow. That is amazing.
My thought as well.
I first read the story in a Norwegian paper yesterday, it was a brief report and I thought it had to be a hoax.
But there it is.
Incredible story! Wonderful way to start the day!!!
link to Newsweek article via Truthout
Intelligence experts warn that a proposal to merge two Pentagon intelligence units could create an ominous new agency.
A threatened turf grab by a controversial Pentagon intelligence unit is causing concern among both privacy experts and some of the Defense Department’s own personnel.
An informal panel of senior Pentagon officials has been holding a series of unannounced private meetings during the past several weeks about how to proceed with a possible merger between the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a post-9/11 Pentagon creation that has been accused of domestic spying, and the Defense Security Service (DSS), a well-established older agency responsible for inspecting the security arrangements of defense contractors. DSS also maintains millions of confidential files containing the results of background investigations on defense contractors’ employees.
Please take the time to read the entire article… it’s a scary read. This type of outrage could easily go under the radar in our “scandal a day” Bush world.
I saw that this morning and it creeped me out.
Beef, it’s whats not for dinner.
Link
I remember when I was a kid watching my Italian Grandpa eat calf brains with eggs. The memory still makes my skin crawl. I am very glad that I’m now a veg.
That must be an acquired taste.
One of the world’s great lakes is disappearing. Lake Chad – shared by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger – has receded to less than 20% of its former volume. Global warming is being blamed, as well as water extraction. Go to the link and see the shocking photos taken from orbit.
Marine researchers in Hawaii discovered a new way to clean coral reefs from invasive algae — sucking them up with an underwater vacuum. The Super Sucker, a 4-inch modified gold dredger that runs on bio-diesel, proved to be efficient in collecting alien algae at Kaneohe Bay on Tuesday. The device sucked 800 pounds of the plant per hour, work that would have required 150 volunteers and 10 divers to perform manually. It spews some water and algae into a porous bin, where researchers pick out sea animals or native plants and return them to sea.
A senior psychologist at Britain’s University of Birmingham says he has found good evidence that fetuses cannot feel pain. Stuart Derbyshire says his study indicates proposals to tell women seeking abortions that their unborn child will feel pain, or to provide pain relief during abortions, are scientifically unsound and may put women at unnecessary risk. He argues pain experience requires not only development of the brain, but also development of the mind to accommodate the subjectivity of pain. And he says development of the mind only occurs outside the womb. …But of course, when had the right ever allowed a little thing like science get in the way of good political rainmaking.
A single pain receptor is responsible for the kick delivered by garlic and mustard oil, which is the active ingredient in mustard and in the pungent green sushi condiment known as wasabi.
The most cost-effective way to stop non-native rats and mongoose from decimating highly endangered species on larger tropical islands is not by intensive trapping, but instead by preserving the forest blocks where wildlife live, according to a new study.
DaimlerChrysler AG’S Chrysler unit, which has for years stayed away from hybrid vehicles and focused on diesel engines instead, will launch its first hybrid vehicle in 2008, the unit’s chief of product development said on Wednesday. The vehicle will be a hybrid Dodge Durango SUV, with 25% better fuel efficiency.
Those Lake Chad pictures are scary.
The current Durango gets 16 mpg. “25% better” would mean that the hybrid version will get 20 mpg. BFD. By 2008, Toyota will hopefully have out its next generation of Prius … which looks like it will get nearly 100 mpg.
Sure, there are a few people who actually need a vehicle the size of a Durango, and 20 mpg is a little better than 16 mpg. But who’s gullible enough to think that it’ll mostly be marketed and sold to people who actually need it?
Yeah, yeah, freedom of individual choice, and all that. But the choices people are making with regards to vehicle purchase (and lots of other things) in the US are based on crappy information. That’s partly due to things like the corporations’ successful externalization and disguising of the true costs of things and partly due to the willingness of most people to let themselves be fooled.
Choice is freedom but it’s also a responsibility.
If that’s the best they can do, they should continue to stay out of the hybrid market.
A short review. Lawless World. By Phillipe Sand. An analysis of how the U.S. is now breaking and opposing international law in a variety of areas. Kyoto. The International Criminal Court. The illegal war in Iraq. To name a few of the topics discussed. Funny how the U.S. failed to even debate the illegality of the Iraq war. The word Hubris comes to mind. Not just for the president, but for congress and the people. American exceptionalism, indeed.
link to Guardian article
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic nation’s firebrand leader, has taken umbrage at an unwelcome text received on his mobile phone. According to whispered accounts in the Iranian capital, his ire was stirred when someone sent him a joke suggesting he didn’t wash regularly enough.
[snip]
Realising the joke was doing the rounds of Iranian mobile phones, the notoriously temperamental president lodged an official complaint with Iran’s judiciary department.
[snip]
An anti-regime website called Rooz Online claims that under the crackdown the head of the country’s mobile phone company has been sacked and four people arrested and accused of colluding with the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad.
[snip]
One joke tells of a man who has died and gone to hell, where he sees the famously strait-laced Mr Ahmadinejad dancing with the Hollywood star Jennifer Lopez. “Is this Ahmadinejad’s punishment?” he asks.
“No,” goes the reply. “It is Jennifer Lopez’s punishment.”
Apparently, this is the latest craze in Iran… emailing and texting jokes about Ahmadinejad and the humorless Iranian government. I bet Dubya would love to just arrest the likes of Leno, and ban the Daily Show. How come the wacky ones never have a sense of humor?
I am sitting here waiting for my ptatient to come and thought I would send you all a pocket of gold. enjoy….
from the tmpmuckraker
Silvio Berlusconi seems to be loosing all hope in the italian recount election. Also interesting is that neither Bush nor Blair have yet recognized Prodi’s victory.
good catch…wondering too, why they haven’t…very interesting…;o) could it be that they are loosing around the world?? inquiring minds want to know….hugs and thanks
Because they will most likely lose a partner in Iraq. Isb’t that sad! 🙂
interesting…mmmmmmmmmmmm
from gillard
I sure do hope that y ou all have your taxes done!!!!!!!!! Look at what charles grassley has to say about your taxes and that of others..ha ha
digby
E&P sums up the latest developments and followup investigations by NBC and ABC…
NBC News purchased a half dozen drives and found highly sensitive information and what appears to be photos of torture victims:
No shit Sherlock!
Full article HERE
Since you have asked for book review, I have sortta of one to give to you all.
I have been reading this one from buzzflash since day one of it’s birth. I can not compliment it more than to share it with you and if you choose to go back into its begining and read it, all of its installments. Thanks…
last chance cafe
I finally cracked open Robert Fisk’s The Great War For Civilization the other day. Intimidating, but the first chapter detailing his meetings with bin Laden are compelling narrative. Short book review, in RF’s words:
War is the utter failure of the human spirit.
Have also been dipping into poet Peter Gizzi’s Some Values of Landscape and Weather (Wesleyan, 2003).
from an homage to the late Gregory Corso, “Revival”:
open this bag of worms again
I know I have been quite active today, but give the to bear in mind and no pun intended.
a bear in Tennessee
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/15/34322/4810
a pictorial adaptation of ozymandias. go. now.